This is for all those people who feel passionately about the importance of soft skills at work and in our life.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Stress in student life - II

The profile of an ordinary student has undergone a sea change. These days, a student is not only a student. He has commitments related to employment, personal relationship, and family responsibilities in addition to educational matters. Most students realize this and are quite capable of juggling these multiple responsibilities, but at times, the stresses and strains of coping with multiple roles and their crosscurrents impact adversely upon students. And this is why it is very important for students to adopt some cushions and stress busting techniques in their lives.

Student life is a very exciting and wonderful phase of ones’ life. It is here that a person learns to experience first hand the problems, difficulties and pressures that he/she will face in future. Hence, it is equally important that these students also learn how to cope up or overcome these problems as well. Thus this can also turn out to be the most pressured and stressful phase of life. The time is limited and a lot has to be achieved. Young students try to pack up so many things together in their college years that they end up losing everything.

Let us take a look at some of the factors that cause problems or difficulties to students.

1. Change in Study process : Coming to a college or university after a protected school environment is a transition which overwhelms majority of students. The learning process changes dramatically from classroom teaching to lecture format with focus on self study and broader perspectives. Teaching is no longer confined to blackboards and one book, but encompasses so much of reading material that new students start getting lost. After the first few months, when the pressure of assignments, presentations, exams starts building up, students crack up. Research has shown that under-achieving students have not developed effective ways of coping, or their problems are so overwhelming that their coping mechanisms are to no avail.

2. Change in Lifestyle : Not only does the studying process changes, the whole system changes as the world starts looking at you as an adult and thus starts the process of finding the identity and a place in the world. This is a big psychological upheaval. It also involves many challenges at a practical level. Not all students get a chance to study at a place near to their homes. They are either required to travel long distances, stay in a hostel or put up in rented accommodations. All this requires a change from their previous lifestyle and even the routine eating and cleaning seems to be a big burden.

3. New opportunities : There are a multitude of activities that a student can choose from and get involved in, based on his/her interest. These are but not limited to be sports, social and political activities, dramatics, Literature and so on. The student must involve oneself in such activities as they help in developing a well rounded personality but the other part is that all these activities also need to be given time to gain something out of them. Thus there can be a constant conflict to give time to activities which are enjoyable and activities which are vital.

4. Personal relationships: There is a change in the way the youngsters view relationships today. As a part of growing up process, they get more freedom from the parents and in fact, demand it. They have their own social circle and fear of rejection is very high. They have to keep up with the peer pressure and under such circumstances end up doing things they never wanted to do.

About Me

Phd in management from Jammu University. Previously worked as a management Faculty and a freelance writer and trainer with special focus on behavior, soft skills and management topics.
I have about 7+ years experience in digital content management and about 3 yrs experience in teaching.